Week 4 Reading Responses

Students can learn a great deal of information using the Internet. November (2010) discusses the use of primary sources for the exploration of history (p. 67). This can be a great way to get students actively involved in their learning and at the same time the freedom to examine historical documents. Teachers must be aware that sites such as these are not created for specific grade levels. Teachers should create some type of guidelines to help students use appropriate grade level materials. Another great source to use in the classroom are online research catalogs (November, 2010, p. 68). Although research catalogs can be a great resource there can often be too much or not enough information on a specific topic. Teachers should structure their assignments based around information that students can easily find without being overwhelmed.

According to November (2010) "the role of the teacher is to provide structure and direction to a student's ability to make meaning" (p. 72). One major skill that students need to lean is to understand the perspective of the sources they read. Teachers need to talk about how different perspective change the meaning of text. Teachers also need to teach students how to efficiently search databases. Just like critically evaluating websites students need to learn how to critically evaluate primary sources (November, 2010, p. 75). Teachers can generate specific questions to help students evaluate different sources.

Teachers can use Podcasting and multimedia tools to promote collaborative learning by having students share their work. Richardson (2010) describes how students can teach other students through the use of podcasts (p. 116). Podcasts can be created and shared in classrooms among different schools around the world. Students can generate ideas and share their learning with others outside of the classroom. Other types of multimedia resources, such as social networking sites can be used in the classroom. Teachers can use programs like Facebook to create classroom pages (Richardson, 2010, p. 136). Most students are familiar with programs like Facebook and it can be a great way for teachers to actively engage their students.

Resources

November, Alan. (2010). Empowering students with technology (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.

Richardson, Will. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.